Saturday, July 23, 2016

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Like The Citadel, King of Carven Stone was released in May 2015 by Australian indie polish maker Powder Perfect as part of the Inklings collection, a collaborative effort with Grace-full Nail Polish featuring polishes themed around the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. King of Carven Stone was inspired by Erebor, the dwarf kingdom within the Lonely Mountain. The name is taken from Tolkien's poem, "The King," written for the Men of Dale when Thorin returned to the Lonely Mountain.

This is a rich, medium-dark teal blue holographic polish bearing abundant variously-sized ultrachrome flakies that gleam in shades of blue, green and gold with occasional flashes of red and magenta (which I love!), giving the polish an ornate, bejeweled vibe that jibes beautifully with its inspiration. Finely milled holographic pigment produces nuanced hues of ultramarine, cerulean, sea foam and misty azure within the base. The prismatic display in direct sun is dazzlingly bright (much brighter than my photos show), an utterly brilliant, analogously-hued flare of ultramarine, azure and sea green with a shifting corona of tiny sparks in red and orange floating over an underlay of semi-metallic bottle green and shading to a deep teal blue around the edges of the nail. Application was great! The consistency of King of Carven Stone is fluid, jelly-like and dense with flakies. It has a medium viscosity and a mostly smooth glide over the nail with a bit of texture to it from the flakies, some of which are fairly large. I had a few flakie stickups, which I gently patted down with my finger tip before topcoating. Pigmentation is very good, delivering evenly opaque coverage in two medium coats. I added a third for the photos. Cleanup is easy and straightforward, no trace staining at all as you might worry about with a deep teal -- hooray! King of Carven Stone dries naturally in very good time to a mostly smooth, shiny finish with a bit of visual texture from flakies that rest at the surface of the polish. Topcoat pops the colors of those flakies and doesn't appear to inhibit the holographic properties of the polish in any way.Photos show three coats of King of Carven Stone over KBShimmer Love You Strong Time treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

Powder Perfect King of Carven Stone

The ultrachrome flakies are less random and more cohesive in person than they appear in the photos -- they're gorgeous embedded within the colors generated by the holo pigment. Fuzzy practically purred over this polish, telling me that it reminded her of dupioni silk and calling it "luscious." I can only agree.